When the Messianic Covenant Community was formed earlier this year, leader Scott Diffenderfer said one of the MCC’s goals was to “move forward from the contention between Messianic Judaism and Messianic Israel to the unity of the One New Man.”

I saw that as an encouraging sign. There has been definite contention between many in the Two-House/Messianic Israel/Ephraim movement and those in the Messianic Jewish movement. This is evident on most messianic blogs out there, especially Messianic Jewish Musings and The Daily Minyan. This has also been seen in controversies over Messianic Jewish musicians canceling appearances at a Messianic Israel Alliance conference, or in sometimes vehement responses to First Fruits of Zion’s change to Divine Invitation (meaning Gentiles are not obligated to keep all aspects of the Torah, but are invited to do so).

A lot of angry words have flown both ways, in some cases on this blog itself.

So what’s the path to lowering the anger level and helping the MCC’s goal along?

To explore that, I posed four questions through email to leaders on both sides of the debate. However, response has been practically nil. That probably shouldn’t surprise me, since I may not appear to be the most trustworthy blogger for this type of thing; I land pretty firmly on the messianic Jewish side of things and have put up posts that received fairly harsh responses from Messianic Israel folks.

But, I’m going to ask the questions anyway. Maybe whatever people read this blog will feel led to respond.

What do the various movements within Messianic Israel and Messianic Judaism need to agree on in order to be at peace and in good fellowship with each other?

What can we agree to disagree about? In other words, what’s not essential?

What “terms” should be excluded from discussion that are offensive to each side or are considered inaccurate?

In what venues could we come together with mutual respect and not feel as if we were violating our consciences or contradicting ourselves?

Like this:

At least one backer of the Messianic Israel Alliance feels its founders, Batya and Angus Wootten, are under “diabolical attack.” In the meantime, that backer is lobbing out accusations against unnamed parties of “‘murderous’ assaults.” He urges supporters of the Woottens “to hold up their arms as did Aaron and Hur with Moses in the time of battle.”

An email newsletter sent out April 11 by Natan Lawrence to the Hoshana Rabbah list, titled “An important announcement to the General Body of Redeemed Israelites everywhere,” asks for daily prayer for the Woottens. He calls them “the instruments (God) has raised up in this generation to bring forth the message of the restoration and reunification of the two houses of Israel.”

But they’re not being treated properly, he says.

Sadly, the most recent attacks are not the first attack against them, but the last in a long series of “murderous” assaults going back for many years. It has been our hope that the perpetrators of these most recent attacks would, if not repent (our sincere hope!), at least back off. Instead, they have intensified their attacks, and hence the reason for this prayer request letter.

Then he prays that those prayers will “go forth like a lethal arrow shot into the heart of the enemies of Yeshua!”

Mr. Lawrence also claims the offenders are “doing Satan’s bidding by touching the spiritual parents of this movement.” He says that “Satan doesn’t want the message of the restoration of the two houses of Israel to go forth.”

The Messianic Covenant Community appears to be an effort by several former key players, including a Peoria-area pastor, in the Messianic Israel Association to get a fresh start in promoting the messianic message.

The MCC is led by Scott Diffenderfer, who pastors Lamb Fellowship in Tennessee and was chief operations officer for the MIA for seven years.

The MIA is the best-known expression of “messianic Israel” or “Two-House” theology, essentially teaching that when a Gentile becomes a Christian, they become a part of Israel and are bound to the same covenants as Jews.

We believe that when a Jew or non-Jew puts his trust in Yeshua as Messiah, they are grafted (or re-grafted) into the olive tree of Israel, by faith. Faith in Israel’s Messiah Yeshua makes one a member in the commonwealth of Israel. Our Father, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. If we are in Messiah, we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the Promise (Romans 11:17-27, John 8:33-39, Ephesians 2:11-19, Galatians 3:29).

That has ramifications, according to the MCC, including the need to keep such commandments as the seventh-day Sabbath and the annual biblical feasts:

We believe that the weekly Sabbath and annual Feasts of the Lord … are “statutes forever” and should be celebrated by the body of faith represented by Believers in Yeshua. The feasts of the LORD, or moedim, are appointments for the Bride to meet with her Husband to learn more of Him and His Kingdom to come. We long for the day when His Kingdom is restored to Israel and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven (Leviticus 23, Zechariah 14:16-19, Matthew 6:10, Acts 1:6, Revelation 22:17).

Diffenderfer says that the MCC was birthed out of the need to focus on congregational development. The MIA’s founders, Angus and Batya Wootten, wanted to refocus on “the topic of Ephraim and Judah, who is Israel, etc.”

Asked how the MCC will be different than the MIA, Diffenderfer said:

1. Our focus is on stabilizing the Messianic movement through bringing stability and support to the families and communities of faith within the movement and those coming into the movement.

2. Our legal structure is not centered on one family and will contain provisions for generational transitions.

3. MCC will be reaching out to all who embrace the covenants of Israel and the Messiah of Israel , regardless of bloodlines.

4. MCC will reach across the current barriers within the movement without condemnation or previous relationship issues.

Those are telling points about the different road the MCC wants to take. The messianic movement is known, in some circles, for its instabilities, especially regarding differing views on how to apply the Torah to the life of a Christian—or whether it’s even OK to call oneself a Christian. The MCC seems to want to bring some kind of order to the messianic chaos, especially on the congregational level.

The “legal structure” Scott is referring to involves the MIA, which is “legally controlled” by the Woottens. He said that arrangement made it difficult to pass on leadership to future generations. The MCC emphasizes passing on the messianic life to children and grandchildren, and that includes the institutions.

The “reaching out … regardless of bloodlines” addresses a theological component that once dominated the Messianic Israel movement: that Christians are actually descendants of Israelites who had assimilated into the nations. Scott said the MCC wants its focus “to be on the blood of Messiah rather than the blood of a man,” but that it’s not relegating the matter to the sidelines.

Point 4 refers to contention between the Israel/Gentile/Ephraim part of the movement and the Jewish part of the messianic movement. I’ll address that in a separate post.

Dan Botkin

Dan Botkin, pastor of Gates of Eden Messianic Congregation in Peoria and an elder on the MCC board, is also optimistic about the impact of the new organization.

“I think it will give GOE (and all the Messianic Movement) more credibility,” he said in an email interview. “The MIA was tainted in the eyes of many people (unfairly) because of certain people’s association with MIA in the past. I know most of the men who are going to be leading the MCC, and as far as I know, they all seem like solid, credible, stable believers. One thing we all have in common is that we all have grandchildren who are being raised in the Messianic faith.”